


Sleep Tight

by Walsingham



Category: New Tricks
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-26 21:37:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6256789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walsingham/pseuds/Walsingham
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny's daughter Holly has moved out, and Danny finds he can't sleep alone. The team notice and plan how to help him, and Steve goes above and beyond the call of duty.<br/>Ignores Fiona and Sarah, just to make room for the gay fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep Tight

   Sasha stood opposite Gerry and Steve, her desk separating her from the two men, but their heads were conspiratorially close together. Sasha was talking, arms crossed over her chest, when Danny walked into the investigation room. She saw him first and said something quickly to the other two. Gerry put his hands up and stepped back, clearly not liking whatever the governor was saying. Steve just shrugged in surrender, hands buried in his pockets, before Sasha shooed them out of her office. Danny didn't concern himself with what they were discussing, though he was slightly irked that it had ended when he had arrived, and suppressed his suspicions. If he needed to know, they'd fill him in later.

   He hung up his long coat and dropped his briefcase on his desk.

   "Morning, Danny," Steve and Gerry chimed from their separate computer screens.

   "Morning all," he replied, stifling a yawn. He recovered just in time to see Gerry shoot Steve a meaningful look.

   "So, Danny," Steve began, not meeting his eye, "you been-"

   The Scotsman was cut off by the arrival of Deputy Assistant Commissioner Robert Strickland, their boss' boss. Sasha hurried from her office to greet him, and Steve seemed grateful for this interruption. Strickland handed Sasha the file of a new unsolved case, and their day began. Danny wasn't asked where or what he'd been as the team worked through 15-year-old evidence. He spent the most part of the day behind his computer, frequently rubbing his eyes to stop them closing of their own will

   At the end of the day, when Gerry declared it 'pub o'clock', Danny snapped his briefcase shut and folded his coat over his arm. They all filed out, Sasha closed the door behind them, and they trooped to their local.

   The mood over their drinks was unusually awkward, though Danny was unsure why, and he soon excused himself to go to the slot machine across the room. He heard mutters behind him as he walked away, and soon heard the scraping of barstool feet against wooden floorboards when someone got up to follow him. At the slot machine, the bright, flashing bulbs hurt his tired eyes, but he'd just been feeling the need to a bit of space and predictability.

   Steve came up behind him and leant against the wall beside the slot machine, facing him but looking at his hands instead of his face.

   "Hey mate, you're pretty good at this stuff, aren't ya," Steve started, indicating the machine with the beer in his hand.

   "Steve, just say whatever they sent you over to say," Danny said, unintentionally coldly. He raised an eyebrow as he glanced to his colleague in a half-hearted attempt to soften his words.

   "Right," Steve readjusted himself against the wall before continuing, "well, to be honest, we're just worried about you, pal. You look dead tired, and you look worse every day. No offence."

   Danny didn't respond. He was still waiting for Steve to actually ask a question.

   "Is everything alright? Are _you_ alright?" Steve shuffled his feet again, clearly slightly uncomfortable.

   Danny stayed quiet a moment longer, his fingers ghosting over the machine's limited controls.

   "It-it's nothing."

   Steve pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand and scrunched up his eyes, like he was warding off a headache. "Look, it's clearly not nothing. It's something that we want to know about. We're your friends, Danny. We want to help. Please, mate."

   Danny's hands dropped to his sides, fingers twitching nervously. "It's Holly."

   Steve's eyes snapped open and met Danny's. "Oh, God, what's happened? Is she okay?"

   The taller man nodded, smiling slightly at the genuine concern he could hear in his friend's voice. "She's fine. Better than fine, actually, she's moved out to her own place for university. And I'm just not used to her not being there when I get home, or not hearing her breathing in the next room at night. It's too quiet."

   He turned his back to the machine and leant against it, looking over to where Sasha and Gerry quickly buried their heads in their drinks. Steve nodded slowly to himself, beginning to understand, before draining his glass and pushing away from the wall. He set the empty glass down on an unoccupied table and clapped Danny on the shoulder, making him jump ever so slightly.

   "Sounds like you need a movie night, my friend. I'll bring the movies, you bring the drinks," and with that, he rejoined the rest of the team, Danny trailing behind him, slightly bewildered at what had just happened.

   Sure enough, Danny's lonely evening was interrupted by a Scottish voice yelling through the front door.

   "Danny-boy, open up! I come bearing Indiana Jones!" The door was pulled open to reveal the older man, laden with white shopping bags. Danny quirked an eyebrow at him, but stepped aside to let him over the threshold. One of the bags was dropped onto the couch as Steve quickly located the kitchen, where he pulled put multiple packets of crisps and several 6-packs of beer, which he separated and found places for in the fridge. He closed the magnet-covered fridge after retrieving a couple of already cold beers that Danny had purchased earlier. Danny followed him and decanted a packet of plain crisps into a salad bowl.

   Steve hadn't paused in his talking since Danny had let him in, not allowing any awkward feeling to seep between them, though Danny was wary of the evening ahead.

   He didn't fall quiet until they were both settled at opposite ends of the couch with _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ to distract him, cold bottles of beer in hand and the bowl of crisps between them. Danny couldn't help but smile at his companion's eagerness to let him know that he wasn't alone, in his own, slightly peculiar way.

   He was only cynical of Steve's plan until midway through _Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade_ , when Steve saw, out of the corner of his eye, Danny's head loll onto his chest, his eyes fluttering closed. Steve emptied his bottle down his throat, smirking to himself.

   "Thank God that worked," he muttered under his breath. He thought about turning the TV off and heading home, but he didn't want to risk waking Danny, and figured that nothing waited for him at home, so he settled back into the cushions. Steve fell asleep just as the credits rolled, and the cheerful LG logo bouncing across the black screen faintly flittered across the faces of the sleeping men.

   As the sun filtered through the open curtains, Steve's ringtone pierced the morning silence. He blinked awake and regained his bearings before hurrying to silence his phone, pressing the green 'answer' button. He pushed himself off the couch, stretching his cramped muscles, and returned the call in the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

   "Steve? Where are you? Are you with Danny?" came Sasha's voice, tinny over the phone line.

   "Yeah yeah yeah, I'm at his place," he murmured into the phone. Tucking his phone between his cheek and shoulder, he ran the taps and cupped water to his face and the back of his neck.

   "What are you doing there? You're both supposed to be here at work. And why are you whispering?"

   "I got him to sleep, guv'! Holly's moved out, and he can't sleep alone, but he nodded off in front of the TV because I was there, because he wasn't alone," Steve's voice rose, pleased that he'd been there for his friend. He ran a wet hand through his grey hair, making it stick up. Untucking his chin, he held the phone to his ear again, leaning against the closed bathroom door.

   "Excellent, Steve! Well done, but you'll probably have to do that for a little while longer. Go home and get changed, come in when you're ready," Sasha responded.

   "Rightio, boss. See you later," Steve ended the call, slipping his phone back into his pocket as he opened the bathroom door and exited. From the door, he could see the back of the couch, where Danny sat up, rolling his beck and stretching his back. Steve leant against the door frame.

   "Sleep well?" he called from his place. Danny turned around, seemingly surprised to still see him there. The tall man still looked far too tired, but dark circles surrounded significantly brighter eyes.

   "I, uh - yes. Yes I did," he turned away and began to pick up empty beer bottles. "Th-thank you."

   The following silence was decidedly awkward, and was only made more so with the sound of Steve patting the tops of his thighs, slightly agitated. They didn't make eye contact as Danny passed him on his way to the recycling bin, but Steve stopped him and clapped him on the back, eager to make a getaway.

   "Well, then. I'll, uh - I'll see you at work," he said. Danny just nodded, and Steve turned away. He was halfway to the door when he called back.

   "Same time tonight, then."

   He didn't give Danny a chance to disagree before slipping out the front door. When they both eventually got to work, Steve made sure not to give Danny a moment to talk to him alone, though he clearly wanted to.

   Instead, he turned up as promised, with several more DVDs and drinks in tow. And thus, a new cycle started between them. They cut down on the drinking, because they were burning through their pays too quickly. Once, Steve even let Danny choose a movie, but vowed never to let that happen again. He rarely used his own flat anymore, he even had a spare change of clothes at Danny's, who didn't bother trying to fight their new relationship anymore.

   The tradition expanded after a week and a half to include dinner, which they would take in turns to make. Steve walked in and out of the place like it was his own, and knew where everything belonged.

   In the office, Gerry and Sandra joked with them that Steve should just sell his place and move in with Danny, but between them they knew it was only a matter of time. They saw what the other two couldn't, until Steve woke up on the couch one morning with his head in Danny's lap, the disc of _The Fifth Element_ cooling in the DVD player. Danny woke up at the same time, also noticed their position, but neither moved to change it.

   From there, their relationship became more than platonic, and Gerry lost a bet with Sasha.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Kudos + concrit always welcome xx


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